macabre film festival

"Hello" at Macabre Faire Film Festival Recap

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Today was the last festival screening of "Hello." The Macabre Faire Film Festival was a bit disorganized and had some technical difficulties, but the film was overall well received. We had an audience of about 20, and the film got the usual laughs and gasps in all the right places. It was nice getting to view it with an audience one last time. The real benefit of the festival though was getting to spend the day with my mom and see my new friend Rebekah Fieschi, whose excellent short film "Mauvaises Têtes (Bad Heads)" also screened at the wonderful Ax Wound Film Festival last year. 

"Hello" finally premieres online tomorrow, so check back at our blog for that!

SUMMIT at Macabre Faire Film Festival Recap

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Today was the final festival screening for Summit, and it was a nice ending to its run. I was there with my mom, like in Rhode Island, but two of my cousins were able to attend as well. The venue and overall vibe was a lot like Scare-A-Con, but less busy. This was actually the first time where I didn't sit through the film. I stepped out after the first few minutes because I had to upload it 2 days ago for its VOD release & I just could not sit through it again. But I was able to hear through the door periodically; and hanging outside the room led to other filmmakers coming over to chat with me, which was cool. I also met some wonderful female filmmakers through a panel I spoke in, which included horror icon Eileen Dietz. As for the actual screening, the screen was small, similar to Scare-A-Con, but the sound was better & the picture quality was more solid than at Manhattan. There were only maybe 5 to 8 strangers in the room but they seemed to really enjoy the film based on their comments & questions during the Q&A.  Also, a few actors came up to me expressing interest in working with me after seeing it. The biggest and loveliest surprise was that my high school photo/video teacher, Mr Krywe, who I had not seen in almost 10 years, showed up to see the film. He had with him the "feature" screenplay I wrote when I was 16 and he asked me to sign it. It was truly wonderful seeing him again and hearing that he uses my drive & work ethic back in high school as an example for his current students. He was the first person to introduce me to the technical aspects of filmmaking & I'm really grateful to have had him as a teacher. He asked me to come speak to his class (which has now become much more decked out than when I was there) and I'm really looking forward to doing so. I can feel that a few unexpected opportunities may have come out of today.

We did not win any awards this time around; however, I'm proud to have been nominated as 1 of 5 films in 4 categories (including the most prestigious of Best Feature & Best Director) out of 30 features. And I'm just glad the audience seemed to enjoy the film. 

Here are some photos from the day. (I'll add professional shots when the festival releases them.)

And here's a quick moment from the panel. 

 

Summit will FINALLY be released for rent or purchase tomorrow on Vimeo on Demand & VHX! Please support both this film & us in making our next one by renting or buying it as soon as you can! Thank you!

-Christina

CORRECTION: I found out later that we won Best Sound. I appreciate the recognition, but it's an odd win. I would say sound is our most overt weakness due to environmental circumstances & lack of budget. It's actually quite cringeworthy at times, if I'm being honest. However, maybe they appreciated the choices in the sound design. In any case, I'm grateful to Colin Harrington, who did 100% of the hands on work by himself, both during production and in post. 

Christina & SUMMIT featured in Newsday

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Christina was interviewed by Newsday in promotion of SUMMIT's screening next weekend at the Macabre Faire Film Festival, where it is nominated for Best Feature, Best Director, Best Sound & Best Supporting Actor (Rob Ceriello). There are 5 films nominated in each category (out of 30 features and 146 films in total). Read the full article here. And see full list of nominees here. 

SUMMIT Accepted at Macabre Faire Film Festival!

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Summit has been accepted to the 2016 Macabre Faire Film Festival on Long Island. The dates are January 16th & 17th. It lines up perfectly as the last festival before the film hits VOD the following week, which happens to be during the 3 year anniversary of production! I'll let you know further details when I get them. Being from Long Island, I'll surely be there; as will hopefully some of the cast & crew who are also from Long Island!

In other news, I don't know much about how the Unreal Film Festival screening last Monday in Memphis went. One person tweeted that they really enjoyed the film and the festival said the audience had a blast. I don't know how many people were in attendance. I'm going to try to get more details next week.

Next festival, as you know, is Rhode Island's Vortex Fest on the 24th. I was also invited to speak in a panel the day before! I'm driving to the festival with my mom. I'll be sure to do a recap of that one because it's gonna be a big one.

We're only waiting on one more festival, which would be in November. Fingers crossed for that screening & more press/reviews along the way

-Christina